(Post)Modernity, Montage, and the Composition of Performance
 Course: ENGL 624
When: MTWRF, June 26-July 14,
9am-12pm
Where: Jerome Ritchfield Hall, room 319
Instructor: Dr. Richard W. Mitchell
Phone: 818-677-3422 or 818-677-3431
E-mail: rick.mitchell@csun.edu
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Required
Texts:
Artaud, Antonin. "The
Philosopher's Stone: A Mime Play." Tulane Drama Review. 9.3 (1965):
89-94. (On library reserve.)
Trans. Mary Caroline Richards. The Theater and Its Double.
New York: Grove Press, 1958.
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Trans.
Harry Zohn. Ed. Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken, 1968.
Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical
Writings. Trans. Edmund Jephcott. Ed. Peter Demetz. New York: Schocken, 1978.
Brecht, Bertolt. Trans. and ed. John Willet. Brecht
on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. New York: Hill, 1964.
Trans. Eric Bentley. Two Plays by Bertolt Brecht: The
Good Woman of Setzuan and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. New York: Signet
Classic/New American Library, 1983.
Ed. Eric Bentley. Baal, A Man's A Man, and The
Elephant Calf. New York: Grove Press, 1964.
Bruder, Melissa, et. al. Intro. David Mamet. A
Practical Handbook for the Actor. New York: Vintage Books, 1986.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender
Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Performing
Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre. Ed. Sue-Ellen Case. 270-282. (On
library reserve.)
Carlson, Marvin. Performance: A Critical Introduction.
London: Routledge, 1996.
Eisenstein, Sergei. "Film Form: New Problems";
"The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram." Film Form: Essays in
Film Theory. Trans. and ed. Jay Leyda. New York: Harcourt, 1949. (On library
reserve.)
Fornes, Maria Irene. Fefu and Her Friends.
New York: PAJ, 1990.
Kaufman, Moises. Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of
Oscar Wilde. New York: Vintage, 1998.
Marranca, Bonnie and Gautam Dasgupta. Conversations
on Art and Performance. Baltimore: PAJ Books/Johns Hopkins UP, 1999.
Perkins, Kathy A. and Roberta Uno, eds. Contemporary
Plays by Women of Color: An Anthology. London: Routledge, 1996.
van Itallie, Jean-Claude. The Playwright's Workbook.
New York: Applause, 1997.
Wellman, Mac. "No Smoking Piece." Short
Pieces from New Dramatists. New York: Broadway Play Publishing, 1985. 69-71. (On
library reserve.)
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Course
Description:
Throughout this intensive, three-week course we will study a diverse array
of theories, performance strategies, and performance texts that challenge notions of
conventional mimetic representation. While the course will include a "creative"
component--the development and performance of short performance texts--the creative work
will be informed by texts from the syllabus, as well as by performances themselves. (We
will view videotaped performances and attempt to attend at least one "live"
performance in Los Angeles.) In addition to maintaining a journal of responses to the
readings, the student will participate in in-class writing and performance exercises;
complete in-class "reflection" essays; give a presentation on a notable
theater/performance artist or movement; complete a short performance text (which the
student will present during an evening of staged-readings); and submit a final version of
the performance text preceded by a seven to eight page theoretical introduction. (NOTE:
M.A. students enrolled in the course for "literature" credit will be required to
write a fifteen page essay for a final project.)
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Course
Requirements:
ATTENDANCE & MAKE-UP POLICY
Regular, punctual attendance--for the entire class period--is
expected. Excessive absences will negatively affect your grade. If you are absent on
the day that an assignment is due, you must still make sure that I receive the assignment
on (or before) that day.
GRADE
Your final grade will be based on your attendance;
participation; performance project; journal; presentation; exercises; in-class reflection
essays; and final project. It is also important that you are well prepared for class;
consistent lack of preparation will negatively affect your grade.
PLAGIARISM
If you are caught plagiarizing or cheating, you will
automatically fail the course.
JOURNAL: Students will respond to a total of ten essays and
interviews in Brecht on Theatre, Performance: A Critical
Introduction, and Conversations on Art and Performance with
substantive, "engaged" journal entries (not merely summaries) of approximately
1.5 pages each. (Please discuss at least three essays or interviews from each book.) The
journal entries will be due during the first week of class.
IN-CLASS REFLECTION ESSAYS: Students will periodically write short,
in-class responses to questions about the readings.
WORKSHOPPING: Students will workshop and rehearse their performance
texts in small groups, and will receive constructive criticism from the entire class
EXERCISES: We will regularly write in class. Students will submit
five pages (fragments are okay) of their strongest in-class writing that did not make it
into their final performance text. Due: Monday, July 17.
PRESENTATION: Specific presentation topics will be assigned (when
possible) to class members prior to the first day of class. I will attempt to make this
process as democratic as possible.
STAGED-READING: Each student will present a short staged-reading of
his/her performance text, with assistance from his/her workshop group, at the end of the
course.
FINAL PROJECT: The final project will consist of the student-written
performance text, along with a seven to eight page theoretical introduction that includes
at least five secondary sources. (MA students enrolled for "literature" credit
will submit a fifteen page critical essay.) Final projects must be handed-in to the
English Department secretary by Monday, July 17, at 4:45 p.m.
NOTE: In addition to the journal entries, you might consider
beginning some of the other writing assignments prior to the first class meeting. Although
this is a three unit course, we only have three weeks of meeting time, so please utilize
your time wisely, both prior to and during the course
READINGS, ETC.: Above, please find the required readings, most of
which should be read prior to the first day of class. In addition to completing the
required journal entries, please try to annotate, and/or take notes on, the required
readings so that you do not have to spend too much time re-reading the material once the
course begins. We will attempt to cover the first seven or eight units during the first
two weeks of class. Throughout the course, please bring to the workshop The
Playwright's Workbook, which will often serve as a guide for in-class
writing and performance exercises.
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Course
Outline:
UNIT ONE
Baal (Bertolt Brecht).
"Art and Consciousness" (Susan Sontag);
"Interpretation and the Work of Art" (Umberto Eco, Robert Wilson); and
"Figure of Speech" (Mac Wellman), in Conversations.
No Smoking Piece (Mac Wellman), in Short
Pieces from the New Dramatists. (On library reserve).
"Performance in its Historical Context" (Marvin Carlson),
in Performance.
China Doll (Elizabeth Wong) and Sun Moon
and Feather (Spiderwoman Theater), in Contemporary Plays.
"The Storyteller," in Illuminations.
Workshops One and Two in The Playwright's Workbook
(Jean-Claude van Itallie). (Throughout the semester, we will complete the exercises from The
Playwright's Workbook in class.)
UNIT TWO
A Man's A Man (Brecht).
"The Modernism/Postmodernism Debate" (Hilton Kramer), in Conversations.
"Performance and the Postmodern," in Performance.
"Emphasis on Sport"; "Shouldn't We Abolish
Aesthetics?"; "On Form and Subject-Matter," in Brecht on Theatre
(Brecht).
"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, "
in Illuminations (Walter Benjamin).
"On the Mimetic Faculty," in Reflections,
Benjamin.
Workshop Three in The Playwright's Workbook.
UNIT THREE
Gross Indecencies: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
(Moises Kaufman).
"Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction";
"Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting"; "The Street Scene," in Brecht
on Theatre.
"What Is Epic Theater?"; "On Some Motifs in
Baudelaire"; "Theses on the Philosophy of History," in Illuminations.
"Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century," in Reflections.
Workshops Six and Seven in The Playwright's Workbook.
UNIT FOUR
The Good Person of Szechwan (Brecht).
"Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in
Phenomenology and Feminist Theory" (Judith Butler), in Performing Feminisms:
Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre. (On library reserve).
"Performance and Identity," in Performance.
"Theatre and the Ridiculous" (Charles Ludlam);
"United States" (Laurie Anderson); and "Performance Strategies"
(Richard Elovich, Karen Finley, Ishmael Houston-Jones, John Kelly), in Conversations.
R.A.W. ('Cause I'm a Woman) (Diana Son), in Contemporary
Plays.
Workshop Four in The Playwright's Workbook.
UNIT FIVE
Fefu and Her Friends.
"The Playwright as Director" (Maria Irene Fornes);
"Environmental Theater" (Jerry Rojo); "Radicalizing the Classics"
(Julian Beck, Judith Malina), in Conversations.
The Theater and Its Double (Antonin Artaud).
The Philosopher's Stone (Artaud). (On library
reserve.)
"Surrealism"; "One-Way Street (selection)," in Reflections.
Workshop Ten in The Playwright's Workbook.
UNIT SIX
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht).
"Film Form: New Problems"; "The Cinematographic
Principle and the Ideogram," in Film Form: Essays in Film Theory
(Sergei Eisenstein). (On library reserve.)
"A Short Organum for the Theatre"; "Appendices to the
'Short Organum'"; "'Dialectics in the Theatre: An Editorial Note," in Brecht
on Theatre.
Workshop Nine in The Playwright's Workbook.
UNIT SEVEN
The Elephant Calf (Brecht).
Excerpts from "Twilight: Los Angeles 1992" (Anna Deavere
Smith), in Contemporary Plays.
"Performance Art," in Performance.
"Personal History" (Rachel Rosenthal) and "Art in the
Culture" (John Cage, Richard Foreman, Richard Kostelanetz), in Conversations.
Workshop Eight in The Playwright's Workbook.
UNIT EIGHT
"Resistant Performance" and "Conclusion: What is
Performance?" in Performance.
"Performance and the Body" (Carolee Schneemann), in Conversations.
Workshops Eleven and Twelve in The Playwright's Workbook.
UNIT NINE
A Practical Handbook for the Actor (Melissa Bruder,
et. al.).
Workshop Thirteen in The Playwright's Workbook.
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Due
Dates:
JOURNAL
DUE: FRIDAY, JUNE 30.
FIRST
DRAFT OF PERFORMANCE TEXT DUE: MONDAY, JULY 3rd.
REVISED
DRAFT OF PERFORMANCE TEXT DUE: THURSDAY, JULY 5th.
FINAL
PROJECT AND FIVE PAGES OF EXERCISES DUE: MONDAY, JULY 17th, 4:45 p.m.
(All
out-of-class writing must be typed, double-spaced, and--when appropriate--it must utilize
the MLA works cited format. There may also be additional in-class and out-of-class
writing.)
Note: This syllabus is subject to change.
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